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causes for ambition; courage; veracity; just as there are for



digestion; muscular movement; animal heat。  Vice and virtue are



products like vitriol and sugar。〃  When we read such



proclamations of the intellect bent on showing the existential



conditions of absolutely everything; we feelquite apart from



our legitimate impatience at the somewhat ridiculous swagger of



the program; in view of what the authors are actually able to



performmenaced and negated in the springs of our innermost



life。  Such cold…blooded assimilations threaten; we think; to



undo our soul's vital secrets; as if the same breath which should



succeed in explaining their origin would simultaneously explain



away their significance; and make them appear of no more



preciousness; either; than the useful groceries of which M。 Taine



speaks。







Perhaps the commonest expression of this assumption that



spiritual value is undone if lowly origin be asserted is seen in



those comments which unsentimental people so often pass on their



more sentimental acquaintances。  Alfred believes in immortality



so strongly because his temperament is so emotional。  Fanny's



extraordinary conscientiousness is merely a matter of



overinstigated nerves。  William's melancholy about the universe



is due to bad digestionprobably his liver is torpid。  Eliza's



delight in her church is a symptom of her hysterical



constitution。  Peter would be less troubled about his soul if he



would take more exercise in the open air; etc。  A more fully



developed example of the same kind of reasoning is the fashion;



quite common nowadays among certain writers; of criticizing the



religious emotions by showing a connection between them and the



sexual life。  Conversion is a crisis of puberty and adolescence。 



The macerations of saints; and the devotion of missionaries; are



only instances of the parental instinct of self…sacrifice gone



astray。  For the hysterical nun; starving for natural life;



Christ is but an imaginary substitute for a more earthly object



of affection。 And the like。'1'







'1'  As with many ideas that float in the air of one's time; this



notion shrinks from dogmatic general statement and expresses



itself only partially and by innuendo。  It seems to me that few



conceptions are less instructive than this re…interpretation of



religion as perverted sexuality。  It reminds one; so crudely is



it often employed; of the famous Catholic taunt; that the



Reformation may be best understood by remembering that its fons



et origo was Luther's wish to marry a nun:the effects are



infinitely wider than the alleged causes; and for the most part



opposite in nature。  It is true that in the vast collection of



religious phenomena; some are undisguisedly amatorye。g。;



sex…deities and obscene rites in polytheism; and ecstatic



feelings of union with the Savior in a few Christian mystics。 



But then why not equally call religion an aberration of the



digestive function; and prove one's point by the worship of



Bacchus and Ceres; or by the ecstatic feelings of some other



saints about the Eucharist?  Religious language clothes itself in



such poor symbols as our life affords; and the whole organism



gives overtones of comment whenever the mind is strongly stirred



to expression。  Language drawn from eating and drinking is



probably as common in religious literature as is language drawn



from the sexual life。  We 〃hunger and thirst〃 after



righteousness; we 〃find the Lord a sweet savor;〃 we 〃taste and



see that he is good。〃  〃Spiritual milk for American babes; drawn



from the breasts of both testaments;〃 is a sub…title of the once



famous New England Primer; and Christian devotional literature



indeed quite floats in milk; thought of from the point of view;



not of the mother; but of the greedy babe。







Saint Francois de Sales; for instance; thus describes the 〃orison



of quietude〃:  〃In this state the soul is like a little child



still at the breast; whose mother to caress him whilst he is



still in her arms makes her milk distill into his mouth without



his even moving his lips。  So it is here。 。 。 。 Our Lord desires



that our will should be satisfied with sucking the milk which His



Majesty pours into our mouth; and that we should relish the



sweetness without even knowing that it cometh from the Lord。〃   



And again:  〃Consider the little infants; united and joined to



the breasts of their nursing mothers you will see that from time



to time they press themselves closer by little starts to which



the pleasure of sucking prompts them。  Even so; during its



orison; the heart united to its God oftentimes makes attempts at



closer union by movements during which it presses closer upon the



divine sweetness。〃  Chemin de la Perfection; ch。 xxxi。; Amour de



Dieu; vii。 ch。 i。















In fact; one might almost as well interpret religion as a



perversion of the respiratory function。  The Bible is full of the



language of respiratory oppression:  〃Hide not thine ear at my



breathing; my groaning is not hid from thee; my heart panteth; my



strength faileth me; my bones are hot with my roaring all the



night long; as the hart panteth after the water…brooks; so my



soul panteth after thee; O my God:〃  God's Breath in Man is the



title of the chief work of our best known American mystic (Thomas



Lake Harris); and in certain non…Christian countries the



foundation of all religious discipline consists in regulation of



the inspiration and expiration。







These arguments are as good as much of the reasoning one hears in



favor of the sexual theory。  But the champions of the latter will



then say that their chief argument has no analogue elsewhere。 



The two main phenomena of religion; namely; melancholy and



conversion; they will say; are essentially phenomena of



adolescence; and therefore synchronous with the development of



sexual life。  To which the retort again is easy。  Even were the



asserted synchrony unrestrictedly true as a fact (which it is



not); it is not only the sexual life; but the entire higher



mental life which awakens during adolescence。  One might then as



well set up the thesis that the interest in mechanics; physics;



chemistry; logic; philosophy; and sociology; which springs up



during adolescent years along with that in poetry and religion;



is also a perversion of the sexual instinct:but that would be



too absurd。  Moreover; if the argument from synchrony is to



decide; what is to be done with the fact that the religious age



par excellence would seem to be old age; when the uproar of the



sexual life is past?







The plain truth is that to interpret religion one must in the end



look at the immediate content of the religious consciousness。 



The moment one does this; one sees how wholly disconnected it is



in the main from the content of the sexual consciousness。 



Everything about the two things differs; objects; moods;



faculties concerned; and acts impelled to。  Any GENERAL



assimilation is simply impossible: what we find most often is



complete hostility and contrast。  If now the defenders of the



sex…theory say that this makes no difference to their thesis;



that without the chemical contributions which the sex…organs make



to the blood; the brain would not be nourished so as to carry on



religious activities; this final proposition may be true or not



true; but at any rate it has become profoundly uninstructive: we



can deduce no consequences from it which help us to interpret



religion's meaning or value。  In this sense the religious life



depends just as much upon the spleen; the pancreas; and the



kidneys as on the sexual apparatus; and the whole theory has lost



its point in evaporating into a vague general assertion of the



dependence; SOMEHOW; of the mind upon the body。







We are surely all familiar in a general way with this method of



discrediting states of mind for which we have an antipathy。  We



all use it to some degree in criticizing persons whose states of



mind we regard as overstrained。  But when other people criticize



our own more exalted soul…flights by calling them 'nothing but'



expressions of our organic disposition; we feel outraged and



hurt; for we know that; whatever be our organism's peculiarities;



our mental states have their substantive value as revelations of



the living truth; and we wish that all this medical materialism



could be made to hold its tongue。







Medical materialism seems indeed 

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